Coca Ecuador

It is hard to get a picture that will give you the feel of how emense the jungle is. I was only able to take pictures from the road, sometime I hope we can actually go into the jungle.


There were several turtles in a small garden area at our hotel


Getting my shoes shined in Coca.

This was a little shop on the river walkway, they sold native items many made with beautiful feathers.


Napo River notice the new bridge being built.


I took these pictures from our hotel window, the Coca River empties into the Napo River here, the Napo River becomes the Amazon River in Peru.



Two of the monkeys in the trees.It is kind of hard to see because the picture is blurry but in the bottom picture there is a baby monkey on his mothers back. The monkey´s are cute but they steal your hats, bags, cameras and food, and they are quick.




I bought one of the grasshoppers and gave it to this little girl, she was a bit shy but let me take her picture.


A man was making these grasshoppers out of reeds on the river walk.

After our river adventure we tried for a long time to get a taxi back into town. We finally found a pickup truck that was headed that way. We hopped in the backseat and several other people waiting in the park hopped in the back. The taxis in Tena are mostly pickups but this one was not marked as a taxi, this may have been a side job to make a little extra money since he was going to town anyway. When we arrived, we quickly boarded the bus and headed for Coca. We arrived again after dark, checked in at the hotel and the missionaries, the Branch President and his wife met us for dinner. The next morning we headed out with Elder and Hermana Geldmacher to visit the missionaries. I had a TB test to do on Hermana Norman. It was very hot and humid; Sister Geldmacher had not been feeling well so after a short time Sister Geldmacher and I headed back to our hotel. Elder Yost and Elder Geldmacher walked the streets of Coca in search of needed items for the missionaries. The Sister´s needed a new apartment so everyone was searching for "for rent" signs. Later in the afternoon we did some exploring and found a Malcon, river walkway, not too far from the hotel. There were a few little shops, a tourist/cultural center and some restaurants. The funniest thing was the monkeys in the trees. We met the missionaries and the sisters here and took them to dinner. As we were finishing our meal a little boy came in and asked if he could eat any food we didn´t want, we gave him everything that was left and waited until he had eaten. The restaurant wouldn´t let him stay and eat if we had left. We are hoping to find some projects here as there appears to be great need. It is a beautiful town on the edge of the jungle. This is where tourists come before heading into the jungle lodges.